# Export your data

> The export catalog — which file answers which question, and how to run one.

Source: https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/finance/export-your-data/

**Who can do this:** Owner, Finance

Every file in **Finance → Exports** answers a specific question about your money — this page tells you which one to reach for, what counts as "real money" in each, and how to run one.

## Which export answers your question

| Export | Answers | Format |
|---|---|---|
| Donation Report | "Show me every donation, one row each, with the donor attached." | CSV |
| Receipt PDFs | "I need copies of every receipt issued in a month." | ZIP of PDFs |
| Event Offering Breakdown | "How did each offering in this event total up?" | CSV |
| Monthly Summary | "What are this month's totals by payment method, for the journal entry?" | CSV |
| SQL Accounting Import | "Give me official receipts my accounting software can import." See [Export to SQL Accounting](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/finance/export-to-sql-accounting/). | ZIP |
| LHDN Individual e-Invoices, LHDN Consolidated e-Invoices | "What did we file with LHDN, and for whom?" (only shown if e-invoicing is on) | CSV |
| Full Data Export | "Give me everything this organization holds, donors included." See [What the Full Data Export holds](#what-the-full-data-export-holds). | JSON |

## Steps

1. **Open Finance → Exports.**

   *Screenshot: the export catalog with its cards grouped by errand.*
2. **Select the export you need**, from the table above.

3. **Set its period.** Most exports take a date range or a month, with quick picks like Last 30 days, This month or Last month, plus a custom range. The Event Offering Breakdown asks for an event instead, and the Full Data Export has no period to set — it always covers everything.

4. **Select Generate Export.** The file is built in the background — you'll see it queue, then show a build progress bar.

   *Screenshot: an export job building, with the live progress bar.*
5. **Download it once it says Ready.** Files are removed 24 hours after they're built, so download promptly — you can always generate the same export again.

## What the Full Data Export holds

Besides donations, receipts and the rest of your records, the Full Data Export lists every donor of your organization: each person linked to it, and anyone with a completed gift to it. Each donor appears with their current name, email and phone, their tags, the audiences they belong to, their recognition tier, and their stored engagement score and churn risk (the same figures shown on their [donor profile](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/donors/understand-a-donor-profile/)). Guest gifts made without a donor account stay in the donations section and do not appear as donors.

Private notes about a donor are included only when the person who ran the export can view donors. If you run it with a role that cannot, the file simply has no notes.

A full data file is built for the person who ran it. Only that person, or someone else who can view donors, can download it from the export history. Other files in the history can be downloaded by anyone who can see it.

The donor list on the Donors page has its own, separate CSV export that follows your filters — see [Find donors](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/donors/find-donors/).

## What counts, and what doesn't

Every organization starts with a handful of **sample donations** — invented example data so the account isn't empty on day one — and every gateway supports **test donations**, made while you were still trying out checkout. Neither is real money, but they aren't excluded the same way everywhere.

**Do**

- Expect the Donation Report, Monthly Summary, Event Offering Breakdown and SQL Accounting Import to leave test donations out on their own.
- Expect **every** export, including those four, to still include sample donations — nothing filters those out.

**Don't**

- Assume Receipt PDFs or the Full Data Export exclude test donations — they don't. A receipt made while testing can end up in the ZIP, and the Full Data Export is a raw, unfiltered copy of everything on purpose.

Watch for one more thing in any CSV you open in Excel or Sheets: a negative figure (a refund or an adjustment) that starts with a minus sign can be read as text rather than a number, and silently drops out of a `SUM()`. If a total on your side doesn't match the file, check for a negative row first.

## If something goes wrong

| What you see | What it means | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| The job stays "Queued" for a long time | The build queue is busy, or the file is large | Leave the page open — it updates on its own — and try a shorter date range if it fails |
| Status turns "Failed", mentioning a timeout | The date range was too large to build in time | Re-run it with a shorter range |
| A total doesn't match your own count | The export uses a different date basis than you expect, or a negative row read as text | Check which date the export counts on (most use the cash date — see [Read your dashboard](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/insights/read-your-dashboard/)), then check for a leading-minus-sign row |

## Related

- [Export to SQL Accounting](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/finance/export-to-sql-accounting/)
- [Read your dashboard](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/insights/read-your-dashboard/)
- [Find donors](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/donors/find-donors/)
- [Close the month](https://donorcare.my/help/organizations/finance/close-the-month/)